Solo Piazzolla (2007)

No matter how many discs of the music of Astor Piazzolla you have, you owe it to yourself to check out this one by Manuel Barrueco. The reason is simple: this is one of the sweetest, most evocative, most virtuosic recordings of his solo guitar music ever recorded. Admittedly, it has this status in part because the Argentinean composer only wrote one work for solo guitar -- the Cinco Piezas from 1980, a work that has already been recorded more than two-dozen times -- while the rest of this disc, like the rest of any other ... Read More

No matter how many discs of the music of Astor Piazzolla you have, you owe it to yourself to check out this one by Manuel Barrueco. The reason is simple: this is one of the sweetest, most evocative, most virtuosic recordings of his solo guitar music ever recorded. Admittedly, it has this status in part because the Argentinean composer only wrote one work for solo guitar -- the Cinco Piezas from 1980, a work that has already been recorded more than two-dozen times -- while the rest of this disc, like the rest of any other disc of Piazzolla's guitar works, consists of transcriptions of works from other mediums. This, as it turns out, is one of the disc's great advantages because the works chosen for arrangement are especially lovely and the arranger turns out to be particularly gifted. In their original forms, the Invierno Porteña and Verano Porteña (Winter and Summer from Buenos Aires) are a wonderful combination of melting lyricism and haunting sensuality, while the six Tango-Études are light, lean,... Read Less